Trouble with Sleeping and Pacifiers

Ahh, the pacifier...or the "binky" as it's referred to in my house. My son was the same way, he would get into a routine like sleeping through the night and then all of a sudden it would change. At that age, it was primarily due to teething. Just when two teeth would poke through, here come another two. The binky would not only sooth him, but it would also apply pressure to the areas of his gums where he was getting teeth.

For me, having my son sleep in the same room as my husband and I was not an option. I don't have a problem with families who choose to have their children in a bassinet or co-sleeper, it just wasn't my choice. However, the fact that your daughter is aware that you are in the room can possibly have an effect on her changing patterns. What I mean is that when she spits out the pacifier, she knows that you are there and will get up to give it back to her in order for her to go to sleep. Somewhere between 5 and 8 months, my husband and I had to sleep train our son. From the moment he was born, I used to rock him in the glider and couldn't put him in his crib until I ran my fingers lightly across his eyelashes to make sure he was asleep (if they don't blink when you run your fingers across, they're sound asleep). I do have to give the credit to my husband for the sleep training, though. I had a really hard time with the crying, not because of impatience, but because I just wanted to run to my son and comfort him. After about four days, he was able to be laid down to sleep, still wide-awake, and fall asleep on his own.

I am not trying to push any part of the parenting style I used with my son on you, I just hope that an array of ideas might help you get some sleep. Good luck and keep us updated!

At that age, I dont remember going through the pacifier ordeal, but I do remember going through it at like 5 months old. I dont think I ever got used to going in all through the night and placing it back in her mouth, but I did do it.It is not that Samantha wakes up and you cant get her back to sleep, but the fact that she wakes up and feels that she needs to suck.Pacifiers are there security, and they need that once it is started.My daughter will wake up and cry "BB", I know that is pacififer.I will go get it and put it in her mouth.She does that about once a week. She will grow out of it.I think that she is just trying to figure out a way to sooth herself, and that(pacifier) is the way.I was the human pacififer.LOL. Are you and the Samantha in the same room? If so, you could just move the crib or whatever she sleeps in closer to your bed.Just a thought.Good luck.

Does she have or like her swing? I found that when I had a problem getting my kids to sleep through the night, that letting them sleep in their swing some of the night helped a whole lot.
As far as the pacifier goes, if you can chose between encouraging the thumb or the pacifier, I strongly suggest encouraging the pacifier, it can be taken away but the thumb can't.
I know it's a little discouraging right now, and it's really hard to have patience when you're tired, but it gets easier. This is just one of the many stages she is gonna go through. Keep us posted and remember you have lots of friends here.

Hi N.!

I'm new to mamasource and Hope that I can be of help to others. !!

19 weeks: If my son would spit his pacifier out, I would, as he's sleeping, place the ring around his fingers so he would feel it there and have easy access to it. When he was asleep in the bed I would (funny as it seems) place one at the pillow, one on his side and ones around him..he would find them on his own. he was rolling over at 19 weeks I dont know if your daughter is there yet, my friends son didn't roll over until 7 months

I let my son have his pacifier until now.
He will be 2 on the 20th of this month (dec)
He slept for the longest time with a pacifier, and like your daughter he spit it out when he was asleep. We were letting him use it other times during the day, but found that he was starting to talk with it in his mouth, which came out as mushy words. We started getting him off the pacifier by asking him could we have it. He would hand it over, then get upset. So we started praising him as "good boy, what a big boy!!" and then when he had his pacifier we would tell him he's a "big boy" and doesn't need it, it's only for "night night and babies, and you are a big boy so you dont need it." if he still persisted, we would tell him night night, and take him to his room to lay down. He would give it to us and walk away (no sleepy for him!!lol) We did this for a while, maybe 2 or 3 weeks, now when he asks for it, we say night night and he says yes, or he hands it back to us and says "babies".

It's good that he doesn't need it all the time, it's funny when he goes up to other children and takes it from them and tells them "babies".!! This worked for us, and maybe it's wotrth a try. We almost have him completely off of it. Sometimes when he asks for it, I ignore his request and find something else to hand him, like a toy, and he usually just forgets about it.

I hope this was helpful!

Now does anyone know how to get the kid to STAY in his bed?? LOL he goes to sleep in his room, but comes into mine around 4 or 5 am.. HELP!!!

I know someone who had a similar problem. They decided that they couldn't get up a million times a night anymore and let the baby cry for longer periods each time to let her learn to go back to sleep on her own. I know you have tried this but I think you aren't giving it enough time. I would check with your doctor if you aren't sure but I think that it's probably ok to let your baby cry for at least 20-30 minutes if she is almost 5 months old. Maybe you aren't giving her enough time. You would be amazed at how manipulative babies can be, if you give her the pacifier every time she is going to expect it everytime. Everyone is different and I know not everyone will agree with me but it took nerves of steel to get my son to go to sleep on his own. He was a stubborn one. I noticed that most of the time it only took one week of a new thing to break the old habit. Give it a try for a few nights. I think the hardest thing for you is that you are in the same room. That is going to make it that much more difficult. She is probably teething and that is why she is changing her habits so maybe if you give her Tylenol/Motrin before bed she will sleep a little better at least for a night or two so you can get some sleep yourself. It's better than getting stressed out. I don't like to give my son's meds but when he was teething he was so much happier if I just gave him a little Tylenol for the pain. It's a touchy subject that some moms feel very strongly about but I don't think a little will hurt. I just couldn't bear to see my son in pain if I could help. Good luck to you, I hope you find a way to get some sleep.

It is possible she may be going through a growth spurt which will change her sleeping patterns. (and possibly make her more hungry) Is she teething at all, because that could also effect how well she sleeps at night...?

Hi N. I had the same problem with my youngest son and I ran to my mom which helped so much she told me that I should try to give the baby a warm bath around 9-10pm every night even if she is asleep wake her and give her a warm bath then feed her then do your usuall routine when you put her down she will stay asleep all night long and beleive me it worked for my son.also i know doctors tell u not to but my children liked sleeping on their tummy you might want to try that also

i am not sure if this will help but this is what i did... she slept in a bassinet or crib from the time she was 2 weeks old... she also had a "ga-ga", however i did have her bassinet or crib next to my bed until she was about 2 then she moved into her own room, to tell you the truth, i did that alot for me, i knew i wouldnt be able to sleep (as well as can be expected) with her in the other room, so we were cramped but it worked well for us. i was able to comfort her and/or hold her hand thru the crib, get covers or "popped out" pacifiers easily...

her routines are going to be changing ALOT! once you got one thing down, she will start something new, so try and not get to frustrated, its just how it goes...

i can tell you one thing i did do, and it helped me alot. i never had to go thru the "sleeping in the bed" ordeal etc.. i never got her out of her bassinet and or crib.. if she was fussy or crying (more so when she was a little older), i comforted her in her crib.. i didnt want her to think if she cried i would get her out, so i always stayed with her (i had a chair in my room, so i just sat in the chair and waited til she feel asleep). but i would hold her hand, i would tend to her needs, i just didnt get her out. and i tell you it worked.. we had other "things" that were challanging but that wasnt one of them.

i am afraid that retrieving the pacifer might be the only thing you can do here. even if it was attached to her or even close by, she still cant do it by herself so, if it were me, i would just move her closer to me so that it was less desruptive to you...

and another piece of advice that i wish i had done... at her one year check up. when the doctor says to start to get rid of the bottles and start using sippys and get rid of the pacifer.. take his advice... i went straight home and got rid of the bottles, but she had just starting asking for the pacifer and i thought it was so cute, and she loved her "ga-ga", so i didnt get rid of that, and she had it until she was 3! we had to have the "ga-ga" fairy come and take it to give the new babies (and leave her a present to ease the pain).

so as you can see, everyone has their challenges.. and what works for some might not for others.. good luck! and try and take advantage of your time off, and sleep becuz believe me,. when you have to go back to work, that doesnt stop them from getting up all the time at night, and you will wish you were still on leave.

i had the same problem with my daughter who is now 10 months it seemed to be gas we changed her formula and gave her gas drops and it seemed to help alittle but we still have that problem once and awhile and i just want to pull my hair out when i hear her cry but now its because of teeth.
also maybe put her in her car seat to start and then leave her in it and put that in her bed they say sitting up helps. i know it did for us.

I unfortunately didn't have time to read through your problem that great or the advice that people supplied (I'm at work and only can hop on here and there), but I did want to say that when my twin sons were younger we would have to keep getting up to give them their pacifier because if we didn't htey would wake themselves up and cry. This stopped around 2 or 3 months, they would find their pacifiers themselves (that's the best day, I swear!). I spoke to our doctor about when you should take a pacifier away from a baby and they said not to do it too soon because then they will find their thumb and you can't take that away which can eventually cause problems with their teeth, etc, so you might not want to encourage her sucking on her thumb. Our problem was swaddeling. We had to break them of it when they were about 8 months because they were too big to keep tightly swaddeled. Basically what I would say is take a time when you have some free time and can go without rest and put her in her crib (the doctor told us to do this when they were fully awake, maybe her nap during the day is too long and she's not sleeping as well at night) and read her a book or do something that you can do every night, maybe set some music, give her a pacifier, and leave the room. Let her cry it out for 10 minutes before going in and checking on her, then wait 15 minutes the next time, etc. You might have a couple of nights of not getting any sleep, but she will learn and then you will have more restful nights, hopefully. Keep us updated!